Taipower, CPC eye commercialization of copious assets

State-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) and CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday won a government-backed task force’s approval to push for more commercialization of their real-estate assets.

Based on the fifth meeting of a task force organized by the Ministry of Economic Affairs to improve management of the two state-run companies, CPC will continue leasing out part of its headquarters building in the expensive Xinyi District (信義) of Taipei City to other government agencies.

Moreover, the refiner will gear up to fully utilize its other idle or under-utilized plots of land from this year to 2016, according to a statement that the ministry issued yesterday after the closed-door meeting.

Huge earnings

CPC has estimated that these two moves would bring an extra income of NT$13.7 billion (US$463 million) to the company, according to the ministry’s statement.

Taipower will also continue to push for land development and leases as well as participation in urban renewal projects in the next five years.

The utility firm estimated that doing so would bring in an additional NT$5.7 billion in revenue, the ministry said.

In yesterday’s meeting, Taipower and CPC reported on their five-year plans to improve management, including how to increase profits, lower costs, improve purchasing practices, decrease or slow down investment plans and reform personnel and corporate structures.

FIVE-YEAR PLANS

The two companies were asked to further review their five-year plans for inclusion into the task force’s initial report to be released to the public before the end of this month, the ministry said.

The task force yesterday also discussed plans to free up power supplies under certain circumstances, including permission for private power suppliers to provide power in certain areas under certain conditions and for generators of renewable energy, such as wind power and solar power, to use Taipower’s system to sell their power to customers.

However, members of the task force did not reach an agreement on this because it would require amendments to the Electricity Act (電業法) before private power suppliers could directly provide power to customers, the ministry said.